In 1995, the United States Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) made a wealth of minute-by-minute flight-tracking information available for distribution to the public with the creation of the Aircraft Situation Display to Industry (ASDI) service. Through this service, flight tracking data is made available to several vendors who are subsequently able to provide information in a value-added format to their subscribers or other users. The ASDI information includes the location, altitude, airspeed, origin, destination, estimated time of arrival and tail number or designated identifier of air carrier and general aviation aircraft operating on at least the corresponding IFR flight plans within U.S. airspace. General aviation VFR flights that include air traffic control flight following are often included. Traditional subscribers include flight departments, charter operators, limousine firms, airframe and power plant manufacturers, air carriers, fixed base operators (FBOs), research firms, and other users.
With the advent of this structure, a number of subscribers and other users were able to obtain valuable flight information and increase the efficiency and reliability of their services. However, in order to utilize this data, interested parties had to either receive it themselves, which could be cost prohibitive, or rely upon a third-party service. For example, an aircraft service provider could not reliably know much in advance as to when food service or fuel would need to be delivered for incoming flights, so as to give its employees time to prepare just enough in advance as to have the food at the right temperature and condition, and the fuel truck in position, at the appropriate time, but with a minimum of waiting. In a similar manner, a casual user could not receive reliable advance notification as to when to leave to go to the airport to meet or pick up someone from an arriving flight so that neither would need to wait on the other. In addition, a member of a common group of users could not automatically and privately share geographically linked aviation related content with another member of the group in a convenient manner when the other was either planning a flight or tracking a flight. The inventors solved a number of these problems as well as other problems present in the aviation information industry, as are illustrated in the descriptions that follow.